Flipkart's new plan to dole out discountsWhat's the news?
Flipkart has begun incentivising sellers to pass on additional discounts to customers enrolled in its loyalty programme Flipkart Plus by offering the vendors non-cash credits, even as the Indian government clamps down on what it describes as "predatory pricing" on e-commerce platforms.
Why does this matter?
The move is significant as Indian foreign direct investment rules prohibit foreign-owned e-commerce marketplaces from directly or indirectly influencing the price of products sold on their platforms. In December last year, a government clarification further discouraged these companies from offering cashbacks to consumers on select items, forcing online marketplaces to find alternative ways to discount products and attract buyers. Read more
PayU India's new leadership teamWhat's the news?
PayU’s India arm will soon name replacements for top executives who quit recently, its new chief executive Anirban Mukherjee said, as the Naspers-owned fintech player undergoes a significant leadership transition.
Earlier this month, Jitendra Gupta and Shailaz Nag, managing directors who headed PayU India’s consumer lending and omni-channel businesses, respectively, resigned. This was after Amrish Rau stepped down as India CEO of PayU in January to take up a broader role within Naspers Fintech.
Why is this significant?
The leadership churn comes at a time when peers such as the Sequoia Capital and Ribbit Capital-backed Razorpay are beginning to close the gap. Razorpay has captured a large section of the new internet businesses, like e-commerce firms and has also played on the pricing game, a top executive at a payment gateway company told ET.
The payments business continues to be PayU’s core offering. Last month, Naspers said in its annual report that the payments business processed $30 billion in volume terms, on more than 920 million transactions. India is the fastest growing market, accounting for more than half of the processed volumes. Read more
Twitter's new redesignWhat's the news?
Twitter will now be available in seven Indian languages, as the US technology company seeks to attract more regional language users. The changes are part of Twitter's new major redesign which is being rolled out across the world over the next few weeks.
What's the idea?
The new redesign, which is the company's biggest redesign in five years, seeks to improve user engagement and make the web experience consistent with the mobile application. The aim is also to access the website easily over basic data connections. Read more
Chandrayaan-2 relaunch planWhat's the news?
ISRO now has a window of a minute every day till July 31 to attempt a relaunch of its much-anticipated moon mission Chandrayaan-2, after the space agency had to abort the mission on Monday, due to the drop in pressure in one of the tanks of the cryogenic upper stage of its heaviest rocket.
Why does this matter?
The Chandrayaan-2 is expected to place India in a niche league of nations such as the US, Russia, and China to have landed a spacecraft on the moon. This mission also comes at a time when there is a growing global interest in returning to Moon to explore minerals and eventually use it as a base for inter-planetary exploration. Read more
IT firms leveraging variable pay for niche skillsWhat's the news?
Tech companies are increasingly leveraging variable pay for high performers and niche skills. They are cascading variable pay to more levels in middle management and building in new ways of calculating them such as project-based assessment.
Why does this matter?
This move comes as Indian IT service companies grapple with margin pressure and rising employee costs amid a growing need for high-cost digital skills and pressure to hire local talent in the US and other countries.
With increasing pressure on the salary kitty, companies are being prompted to make more intelligent and wide use of the variable component, which may command a 10-15% share in middle management pay and 30-35% in senior management pay. Read more